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I thought this would be another of those nice-enough Newbery Honor books that I read and enjoy at the time but then later can only vaguely remember the characters and the storyline. I really enjoyed the two other Mary Stolz books I've read: A Dog on Barkham Street and The Bully of Barkham Street, so I guess I should have expected more. This did start out as a nice-enough story sort of reminiscent of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn with its New York City setting and just-surviving poor family, only for a younger reader. But somewhere in the middle of the book, I really started to like the characters and care about what happened to them. I especially liked Franny's four-year-old brother, Marshall, with his wish to stay up all night.

In the beginning, I didn't feel much sympathy with Franny's dad and his inability to keep a job. It seemed like he was the cause of all the family's problems. But I came to really sympathize with him as well: an artist who could never seem to find a job that would suit him while also allow him to support his family.

Although this is called "The Noonday Friends," I found that I wasn't much interested in Franny's petty squabbles with her friend Simone and the possibly-rich Lila Wembleton. I think a different title would have suited this book better in highlighting the more interesting storylines of Franny's and Simone's families.

This did feel a little dated if read as contemporary fiction. If I look at it as historical fiction set in Greenwich Village in the 1960s, it doesn't feel dated at all. :) 3.5 stars.

Note: My copy matches the ISBN number, but has a completely different cover than is shown here on GR. Scholastic must have changed the cover but not the ISBN at some point.